Networked gaming system with skill influenced prize mapping

ABSTRACT

A server in a network receives a player&#39;s game play request from a player station that is located remotely from the server in the network. In response to the player&#39;s game play request, a display of the player station generates an image prompting a player to enter a player input at the player station. The player input, which is at least partially skill dependent, is ultimately evaluated at the server to produce a game result. The game result is then communicated back to the player station and presented to the player in some fashion.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to electronic gaming systems enabling playersfrom many different gaming locations to participate in various games.More particularly, the invention is directed to apparatus, methods, andprogram products for awarding prizes in a networked gaming system basedon a player's performance in a skill game conducted through the network.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Gaming machines such as mechanical slot machines and even early videoslot machines and video poker machines were stand alone gaming machinesin which a result for a game play was determined at the gaming machineitself in some fashion. Commonly, the gaming machine produced somerandom result in response to a game play request at the gaming machine.This random result was mapped to some prize that would then be awardedto the player. Many mechanical and video slot machines and other gamingmachines still produce or determine the result of a game play at thegaming machine itself.

Certain modern gaming systems include gaming machines or player stationsthat are connected through some communications link to a some othersystem component that is responsible for determining or identifying gameplay results. That is, although the game play requests are entered atthe player stations, those requests are communicated to some othersystem component which determines or identifies a result for each gameplay. For example, some modern video lottery systems employ a serverthat receives game play requests from different player stations andassigns a predetermined lottery record and associated result for eachgame play request. U.S. Pat. No. 6,733,385 describes one such “centraldeterminant” lottery system. Certain modern bingo gaming systems alsoinclude player stations and a separate server for actually conductingthe bingo games and identifying results for each play in such a bingogame. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/456,721, now U.S. patentapplication publication No. ______, describes such a networked bingogaming system.

One problem with stand alone gaming machines is that it is difficult toprovide the player with a sense that their actions or inputs have anyinfluence on their results. Giving the player the sense that his or herinputs at the gaming machine can effect the result of play is even moredifficult with central determinant video lottery games and networkedbingo games. Many players prefer to have the sense of competition andexcitement generated in live table games and other traditional casinogames.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides apparatus, methods, and program productsfor producing, determining, looking up, or otherwise identifying aresult for a player based at least partially on a skill-based input fromthe player. In one embodiment, a server in a network receives a player'sgame play request from a player station that is located remotely fromthe server in the network. In response to the player game play request,an image prompting the player to enter a player input at the playerstation is generated at a display of the player station. The playerinput, which is at least partially skill dependent, is ultimatelyevaluated at the server to produce a game result. The game result isthen communicated back to the player station and presented to the playerin some fashion.

As used in this disclosure and the accompanying claims, a skill-basedinput refers to an input that provides some measure of player skill,knowledge, or ability or is dependent upon the player's skill,knowledge, or ability. A skill game as referenced in the presentdisclosure and accompanying claims refers to a game that requires orpermits some skill-based input from the player participating in thegame. Examples of skill-based inputs include inputs that provide somemeasure of, or that are influenced by, the player's eye-handcoordination, hand speed, memory, knowledge of various subjects, orability to predict various occurrences or outcomes. Under thisdefinition, the simple activation of a switch, button, lever, or otherdevice by itself would not constitute a skill-based input. Theactivation of a switch, button, lever, or other device as measuredagainst some standard or value is to be considered a skill-based inputunder the present definition. The activation of a switch, button, lever,or other control in coordination with some event or to control someobject such as an animated object on a display device, is also to beconsidered a skill-based input as the designation is used in thisdisclosure and the accompanying claims.

One form of the invention includes receiving at least two player gameplay requests at a server in a network. Each game play request issubmitted from a respective player station located in the networkseparate from the server. After the player game play requests arereceived at the server, an image is generated at a display at each ofthe respective player stations. The image at each display prompts therespective player to enter a skill-based player input at the respectiveplayer station. The skill-based player input at each respective playerstation is ultimately evaluated against some standard in some fashion atthe server to produce a respective game play result for each player.Each player's game play result is then communicated back to therespective player station and presented to the player in some way, suchas through some graphic presentation at the player station display.

In another form of the present invention, a first player and at leastone additional player each submit a respective game play request to aserver remote from their respective player station. The game playrequests received at the server are grouped at the server such that theplayers are included in a multi-player skill game, that is, a game inwhich player skill-based inputs from multiple players are used inidentifying a result for each player. Each player is then prompted for askill-based input at their respective player station and the serverultimately uses the skill-based inputs to identify a result for eachgame play request in the multi-player skill game.

Each of the skill games according to the present invention may be aprimary game or may be a secondary or bonus game associated with someother primary game. In particular, one preferred form of the inventionuses the game play result of the skill game to modify the result of aprimary game that is not necessarily a skill game.

A system embodying the principles of the present invention may include anetwork having at least two player stations and a server. Each playerstation is configured to accept respective inputs to generate or resultin a game play request which is communicated to the server. Each playerstation also includes a respective player input device to allow theplayer at the respective player station to enter a game input in thegame and a display to present a game play result to the player. Theserver is coupled to each of the player stations to receive the variousgame play requests and player inputs. A game result identifyingcomponent that may be implemented with the server identifies a resultfor each game play request and then the server communicates eachrespective result back to the respective player station. A groupingcomponent may also be implemented with the server to group the variousgame play requests received at the server into various multi-player gamegroups.

The present invention also includes a program product stored on at leastone storage medium. The program product includes a set ofmachine-readable instructions that are configured to carry out themethods described herein.

These and other advantages and features of the invention will beapparent from the following description of preferred embodiments,considered along with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a high level diagrammatic representation of a gaming systemembodying the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic representation of a portion of the system shownin FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic representation of the input device shown inFIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a gaming method embodyingprinciples according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating another gaming method embodyingprinciples according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating yet another gaming methodembodying principles according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating still another gaming methodembodying principles according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows a gaming system 100 including a central game server (CGS)101 that cooperates with a number of other components to enable players,preferably at many different remote gaming sites on a network, toparticipate in skill games. Each gaming site or casino in theillustrated system includes a local area server (LAS) 102 and a numberof electronic player stations (EPSs) 103. As will be discussed in detailbelow, a player at any EPS 103 in the system may participate in a skillgame alone or together with one or more players at any of the other EPSs103 in the system. The skill game may add an element of excitement dueto the fact that results are based at least in part on a player's skill.Competition between players in the skill-based games may make game playeven more exciting in system 100.

According to the present invention, the identification of a result for agame play request based at least in part on an evaluation of theplayer's skill-based input in a game, is performed by a system componentseparate from the respective EPS 103 from which the game play requestwas initiated. In one embodiment, the CGS 101 may serve as a game resultidentifying component. In other embodiments, the gaming sites such asthe LAS 102 may serve as the game result identifying component.

Some games that may be implemented according to the present inventioncomprise single-player skill games. In a single-player skill game, thegame result identifying component such as CGS 101 or LAS 102 evaluatesthe player's skill-based input against some predetermined, random, orpseudo-random standard to identify a result for the player'sparticipation in the game. The methods described in detail below withreference to FIGS. 4 and 7 represent two different methods for providingsingle-player skill games according to the invention.

Other games that may be implemented according to the present inventionmay include grouping players for participating in multi-player skillgames. In these multi-player games the game result identifying componentsuch as CGS 101 or LAS 102 uses the skill-based inputs from otherplayers to evaluate a given player's skill-based input and identify aresult of the given player's participation in the game. In amulti-player skill game according to the invention, a grouping componentgroups players for the various games. Such a grouping component may beimplemented with CGS 101 or LASs 102 in system 100. The methodsdescribed in detail below with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 represent twodifferent methods for providing multi-player skill games according tothe invention.

Preferred gaming systems according to the present invention support bothsingle player and multi-player skill games. That is, one or more playersat the different gaming sites in the system may participate in singleplayer skill games while other players in the system are concurrentlyparticipating in multi-player skill games. A single centralizedcomponent such as CGS 101 may serve as the result identifying componentfor both the single player and multi-player skill games. Alternatively,a centralized component such as CGS 101 may serve as the resultidentifying component and grouping component for multi-player skillgames and a gaming site component such as each LAS 102 may serve as theresult identifying component for single player skill games played at therespective LAS's EPSs 103.

CGS 101 and each LAS 102 included in system 100 as shown in FIG. 1, maycomprise one or more computer systems each having one or moreprocessors, nonvolatile memory, volatile memory, a user interfacearrangement, and communications interface, all connected to a systembus. These computer system details are omitted from the present drawingsso as not to obscure the present invention in unnecessary detail. In onepreferred form of system 100, the processor or processors associatedwith CGS 101 are programed with operational program code to implementthe game result identifying component in the system. The CGS processingarrangement in this form of system 100 is also preferably programed toimplement the grouping component if the system supports multi-playergames according to the invention. Where CGS 101 is programed toimplement the result identifying component or both the resultidentifying component and the grouping component, each LAS 102 isconfigured with suitable operational program code to transfer or relayinformation from its respective EPSs 103 to CGS 101 and transfer orrelay information from the CGS to the LAS's respective EPSs. Each LAS102 according to the present invention may be programed to act as theresult identifying component and grouping component (where such groupingis supported in the system) with the ability to take over thosefunctions under certain circumstances from CGS 101. For example, whereone LAS 102 serves a large number of EPSs 103, the LAS may group playersor game play requests from its respective EPSs during a time of highplayer activity, identify results based at least partially on thevarious player inputs, and return results to the EPSs rather than havingthe CGS 101 perform these tasks. Also, each LAS 102 may be configured toperform the tasks normally performed by CGS 101 in the event thecommunications link between the respective LAS and CGS is severed ordegraded below a certain level.

It will be appreciated that the particular configuration of devicesshown in FIG. 1 is shown only for purposes of example. A gaming systemaccording to the present invention may omit some or all of the separateLAS's 102 at the various gaming facilities so that the EPSs 103communicate directly with CGS 101. Also, various regions or differentgaming facilities may be divided up into separate systems each having arespective CGS such as CGS 101. A system according to the invention mayalso be configured such that any one of several different CGSs couldservice a given EPS 103 anywhere in the system.

FIG. 2 shows a portion 200 of the complete system 100 shown in FIG. 1.System portion 200 includes CGS 101 and a single LAS 102 with severalEPSs 103 operatively connected for communications with the LAS. EPSs 103are each illustrated as having a processor 201 and a player interfacearrangement made up of input device 202 and display 203. In preferredforms of the invention, volatile and nonvolatile memory (not shown)associated with processor 201 in a respective EPS 103 may store computerprogram code that may be executed by the processor 201 to cause theprocessor 201 to perform or direct the various functions provided by EPS103. In particular, processor 201 will receive various player inputsfrom input device 202 associated with the respective EPS 103, and directthe respective display 203 to generate or produce graphics consistentwith game play. These graphics shown at display 203 may facilitate orprompt various player inputs through input device 202 and may presentgame results to the respective player. In a preferred form of theinvention, display 203, or at least a portion of the display, willcomprise a touch screen display that may be thought of as part of inputdevice 202.

It will be appreciated that FIG. 2 provides only a very diagrammaticrepresentation of each EPS 103 and does not show many elements that maybe included in such a player station that may be used in a systemaccording to the present invention. In particular, it will beappreciated that an EPS 103 may have a separate graphic processorcontrolled through processor 201 to cause various graphics to bedisplayed on display 203. One or more touch screen controllers may beassociated with display 203. Also, each EPS will commonly include asound system for providing high quality audio output at the EPS and avisual alerting device such as a light mounted at the top of the EPS.Each EPS will also commonly include one or more input and/or outputdevices used to implement a game accounting or player tracking systemused in the gaming system. For example, each EPS 103 will commonlyinclude a player card reader and/or a device adapted to receive oroutput value in some form, such as currency, tokens, or vouchers. Itwill also be appreciated that an EPS 103 that may be used in the presentinvention may include more than a single display. Thus, display 203 maycomprise multiple separate display devices such as CRTs, LCDs, plasmadisplays, or any other suitable types or combination of displays. Itshould further be noted that the EPSs 103 need not be identicalthroughout system 100. Rather, there may be wide variations in thevarious components included in each respective EPS 103. The additionaldetails of the EPS such as a sound system, visual alerting device, cardreader, or value in/out devices are unnecessary for a description of thepresent invention and are thus not shown in the figures.

FIG. 3 shows further details of input device 202 shown first in FIG. 2.Input device 202 may include multiple types of player input elementssuch as a button panel 301, a track ball 302, a keyboard 303, a mouse304, etc. Each type of input element may serve a different functionrelating to a player's skill. For example, the button panel 301 may havemultiple buttons 305, that illuminate one at a time in an arbitraryorder and the player may be prompted to press the buttons 305 in thesame order of their previous illuminations to test that player's memoryskills and measure that player's ability against another player atanother input device 202 or against a predetermined standard. The inputdevice 202 may include one or more or even all of the input elements,and in some embodiments, the input device 202 may include multipleversions of one of the input elements. Also, certain virtual inputelements may be represented on display 203 if the display comprises orincludes a touch screen display. Of course, it will be appreciated thatnumerous combinations of input device elements and skill games areenabled by the present disclosure and should be understood to beincluded in embodiments of the present invention.

The operation of system 100 according to various forms of the presentinvention may be described with reference to the flow diagrams of FIGS.4 through 7. It will be appreciated that the references to components insystem 100 in the following discussion are references to thecorresponding components shown in FIGS. 1 through 3. The physicalcomponents mentioned with reference to the flow diagrams are not shownin the flow diagrams.

FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram illustrating a gaming method 400 embodyingprinciples according to one preferred form of the present invention.This embodiment may be implemented in a gaming system such as system 100shown in FIG. 1. As indicated at process block 402, a player may enter agame play request at a player station such as EPS 103 on the network.The game play request comprises a request to enter a skill game in whichresults are determined at least partially based on a skill-based inputfrom the player and prizes or awards are assigned accordingly.

In response to the game play request entered at the EPS 103, the EPSprompts the player for a skill-based input at the EPS 103. For example,the game may have a horse racing or other racing theme and the playermay be asked to spin the track ball 302 associated with the EPSs inputdevice 202. EPS 103 may generate an image of a race horse on the EPSdisplay 203 which proceeds across the display based the player's skillor ability to spin the track ball 302. As illustrated at process block404, the system produces, determines, or otherwise identifies a resultfor the player's participation in the game based at least in part on theplayer's skill-based input. Continuing with the horse race example, theplayer's result in the game may be determined based at least in part onthe speed with which the player “races” the horse across the display203, that is, operates the trackball or other control device to move thehorse across the display. The player may also be required to maneuverthe horse around obstacles such as other horses in addition to move thehorse as quickly as possible through the graphic display.

In one embodiment of the horse race example, the faster the player racesthe horse across the display 203, the more favorable the player prizebecomes. On the other hand, if the player's horse crosses the display203 slowly, the player may be awarded a lesser prize or no prize at all.In this embodiment, the result identifying component, either CGS 101 orLAS 102 identifies the result based at least in part on comparing theplayer's skill input to a some speed standard set at the serverregarding the speed that the horse crossed the display 203. For example,the speed standard may be a time range from 5-8 seconds for a firstprize, a range of 9-15 seconds for a second prize, etc. The standard maybe fixed, fixed at different levels for different wagers, or random.

Regardless of how the game result is identified at the serverimplementing the game result identifying component, at process block 405in FIG. 4, the server communicates the result of the game play to theEPS 103 from which the game play request and skill input was entered. Atprocess block 406 the result and any associated prize is presented tothe player in some manner such as through an image on EPS display 203and/or sounds from the EPS sound system. Any prize associated with theplayer's result may be dispensed from the value in/out device of the EPS103, according to the operation of that device and the game accountingsystem used in gaming system 100.

The horse race example described above is an example of a game accordingto the invention requiring a skill-based input that is related to aplayer's physical abilities. Other games according to the invention maymeasure other physical abilities such as eye-hand coordination or anyother physical ability or set of physical abilities. Other skill-basedgames according to the present invention may require skill-based inputsrelated to the player's knowledge of various subject matter, theplayer's memory, or some combination of these, perhaps combined withsome physical ability, or perhaps combined with some random resultgenerated in a lottery-type game, slot machine, or a bingo-type game,and measured against some standard. For example, a paper/rock/scissorsgame may be played between a single player and the result identifyingcomponent, with the result identifying component randomly choosingpaper, rock, or scissors for comparison with the player's input. Asanother example, a single player skill game may be evaluated in terms ofthe number of correct answers provided by the player in a trivia game orthe speed at which the player answers trivia questions. As yet anotherexample, a single player skill game may evaluate the player's input interms of the ability of the player to match a pattern of flashing lightsagainst some set standard. For games that involve a measurement of thespeed at which a player acts, the speed is preferably measured by firstnoting a time at which a player response prompting image is firstgenerated on the player station display 203 (as indicated by the graphicgenerating instruction being communicated to the display). The timebetween that start time and the time at which the player stationreceives the player's input or inputs is then measured, and this timerepresents the player action time or response time. This response timeor some representation of the response time may then be communicatedfrom the EPS 103 to the result identifying component such as CGS 101 orLAS 102.

The nature of communications between the various components in system100 in order to implement the method shown in FIG. 4 will depend in parton the type of skill game being played. In particular, the skill-basedinput at an EPS 103 may be initially evaluated or measured at the EPS(as in the player speed example described in the previous paragraph) andthis initial measurement may be communicated from the EPS to the resultidentifying component. The result identifying component may thenevaluate the received measurement against the applicable standard orother applicable value, identify a result for the game play, andcommunicate the result back to the EPS 103. The result is preferablycommunicated to EPS 103 in the form of a code or index value that isacted upon appropriately by the EPS. It will be appreciated that theinitial game play request in the method shown in FIG. 4 need notcomprise a communication to the result identifying component, or anycommunication from the EPS 103 for that matter. Rather, the game playrequest may merely cause the respective EPS to start a game, that is,prompt the player for the skill-based input and this input will becollected at the EPS and ultimately evaluated at the result identifyingcomponent to identify a result for the player. In other forms of theinvention, each game play request results in a communication to somesystem element remote from the EPS 103, and this remote element may thencommunicate an instruction back to the EPS which causes the EPS toprompt the player for the skill-based input. Thus, where a player promptfor a skill-based input is required in a given game implementation, theinstruction to prompt the player may originate from CGS 101 in FIG. 1,LAS 102 or at the respective EPS 103. In yet other forms of theinvention, no separate game play request is necessary. Rather, the EPS103 may reside in a state in which the player may immediately make askill-based input for a game without a separate game play request asindicated at block 402 in FIG. 4. In these forms of the invention, theremay be no prompting of the player for a skill-based input as shown atblock 403 in FIG. 4, or at least such a prompting step is not performedin response to a game play request entered at the player station.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating another gaming method 500embodying principles according to the present invention. Gaming method500 begins at process block 503 where players at different EPSs 103 inthe system 100 enter game play requests. At process block 504, a serversuch as the CGS 101 implementing a grouping component may collect theplayers' game play requests from EPSs 103 into a game group. At processblock 505 the players in the game group, that is players havingsubmitted game play requests that are collected into the game group, areprompted for a skill-based input at their respective EPS 103. Therespective EPS 103 may prompt the player at the EPS 103 for the inputand may collect a local result produced from each players' input. Therespective EPSs 103 may then forward the local result to a server suchas the CGS 101 or LAS 102 which implements a result identifyingcomponent where the local results from each of the EPSs 103 are comparedin some way so that each participating players' result is identified ordetermined based on the comparison. At process block 506, the servercommunicates the respective player's result to their respective EPS 103,with the result preferably in the form of a code or index value that theEPS may use to look up an associated prize value and/or result graphic.Upon receipt of the player's result from the game conducted for the gamegroup, the respective EPS 103 presents the result to the player eitherthrough an image or other interaction with the player and shows theplayer any prize or award that may be associated in some fashion withthe result.

As described in reference to FIG. 4, it is possible to implement gamesaccording to the present invention in which no game play request isrequired separate from the player skill-based input. Multi-player orgrouping games such as described with reference to FIG. 5 may also beimplemented where no game play request is required separate from theplayer skill-based input. In this case, no separate prompting step isrequired as shown at block 505 in FIG. 5. Rather, the player'sskill-based input itself represents a game play request grouped asindicated at block 504 in FIG. 5. In this arrangement, the skill-basedinputs themselves are grouped as indicated at block 504. In yet otherforms of the invention, the skill-based inputs themselves may be groupedin a separate step after block 505 in FIG. 5, and this grouping isperformed instead of grouping the game play requests as shown at block504. The player skill-based inputs may be grouped to form a game groupaccording to the invention, even where the players make separate gameplay request.

In one embodiment, for example, the players in the group may each beprompted to respond to a knowledge-based question appearing on theplayer's respective EPS display 203. The players may read the questionon the display 203 and type or otherwise enter a response to thequestion through input device 202. The player correctly responding tothe server prompt the quickest may be awarded a prize while otherplayers receive nothing or a reduced prize depending on how quicklytheir response was received at the EPS 103.

In another embodiment, the game may comprise an interactive video gamein which the players may battle each other in an animated presentationon respective EPS displays 203. The players may each be assigned aparticular character in the animation and may control the character'smovements via respective input device 202. The game result identifyingcomponent, either LAS 102 or CGS 101, may identify a winning result forthe player or players that “win” the battle or supply inputs thatproduce certain results in the battle, and may identify a losing resultfor the other players in the game group. Of course, variations of theinput device 202 and the interactive game will become apparent to thoseof ordinary skill in the art and viewing the present disclosure.

Many other forms of games may use skill-based inputs from a number ofplayers in a group to identify a game result for each player in thegroup. The group game may also comprise a paper, rock, scissors typegame, or a prediction type game for example. In a prediction type game,each player may be prompted to predict something such as a randomlygenerated value or set of values. A prediction type game mayalternatively require each player in the group to predict how manyplayers in the group submit a correct answer to a trivia or othersimilar question. It will be noted that the multi-player games may becompetitive or non-competitive. In competitive multi-player games, theplayer's result will be determined relative to other players'skill-based inputs. In non-competitive multi-player games, each player'sresult will be determined relative to some standard and not relative tothe other players' respective skill-based input. The standard may,however, be affected by the skill-based inputs from the various playersin the group. For example, the game may require two skill-based inputsfrom each player, one may be an answer to a trivia question and anothermay be a prediction of what percentage of players in the group answercorrectly. Each player's result in the game may be determined by howclose their prediction is to the actual percentage according to somestandard and not relative to the predictions of the other players in thegroup.

The nature of communications required in the system 100 to implement amulti-player game according to the method shown in FIG. 5 are differentthan for non-grouping games such as that shown in the method of FIG. 4.In particular, each game play request or a representation of a game playrequest must be communicated to the grouping component in the system orat least to some component that participates in player grouping withother components. The result identifying component must also receiveinformation on each game group in order to properly compare or evaluatethe various skill-based inputs and properly identify a result for eachgame play request. Preferred forms of the invention implement thegrouping component and result identifying component in a common systemprocessing arrangement in order to minimize communications overhead inthe system. For example, CGS 101 preferably implements both the groupingcomponent and result identifying component according to one form of thepresent invention. Regardless of where in the system the resultidentifying component is implemented with respect to the groupingcomponent, the result identifying component receives information on eachplayer's skill-based input or inputs for each player in the group anduses that information according to the game rules to identify a resultfor each player or game play request. Game results are communicated tothe various EPSs 103 preferably in the fashion described above withreference to FIG. 4.

In a preferred form of the invention, game play requests in the methodshown in FIG. 5 are grouped in any of the fashions disclosed in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/456,721, entitled “Method, System, andProgram Product for Conducting Multiple Concurrent Bingo-Type Games.”The entire content of this prior application is hereby incorporatedherein by this reference. As disclosed in that prior application, gameplay requests may be collected in a queue or register until somepredetermined standard is met for the number of collected game playrequests. Once this standard is reached, the collected game playrequests are considered a game group and the multi-player game is playedor conducted so that results may be identified

It will be appreciated that a system implementing the multi-player formsof the present invention may rapidly group players and start one gameafter another so that multiple games may be in play at any given time.That is, once a first group of players has been assigned to participatein a skill game offered through the system, such as system 100, thesystem may proceed to simultaneously or concurrently administer anotherskill game for another skill game group. A system according to thepresent invention may not necessarily wait for one skill game to becompleted before starting to collect players for, and actually beginningplay in, another skill game. The number of players grouped for the playof skill games according to principles of the present invention may belimited to reduce the time required for grouping players. If a certainnumber of players or game play requests in a skill game is required, thenumber may be referred to as a quorum of players or game play requests.For example, each skill game offered through gaming system 100 shown inFIG. 1 may be limited to between 2 to 20 players, with the preferrednumber of players for any given game being from 10 to 15. A quorum maybe when 10 players enter game play requests for a particular game. Also,various characteristics of players may be considered when forming aquorum for a game. For example, various player's may be associated witha skill level or a wager level and game play requests from these playersmay be grouped together exclusively. In any case, it will be appreciatedthat where system 100 includes a large number of EPSs 103 at the variousremote locations, several thousand EPSs for example, hundreds ofindividual skill games may be in process at any given time through thegaming system. It will also be noted that the system may support anynumber of different multi-player games and the grouping component may berequired to distinguish the various game play requests and group theminto the appropriate game groups to play the requested game. Thus, thecommunication representing a game play request in the present inventionmay include an index or other value that indicates what type of game isrequested. In some forms of the invention, player grouping may beentirely transparent to the players and the players will not be awarethat their game play requests are being grouped for any purpose.

FIG. 6 shows a method 600 embodying the present invention. Gaming method600 begins at process block 604 where players across the network in thesystem 100 of FIG. 1 may enter their respective game play requests at arespective EPS 103. At process block 606, a server such as CGS 101 orLAS 102 implementing the grouping component identifies common game playrequests for a game, and the server groups the players' game playrequests for the particular game that is requested. At process block608, the server implementing the result identifying component thencarries out the game that the grouped players had requested andidentifies a result for each game play included in the group. A prizefor the result may be identified at the server or elsewhere in thesystem. In any event, this first result may be considered to be a resultfor a first game which may be a skill game or a non-skill game. Atprocess block 610, the players are prompted for an additional gameinput. The input for which the players are prompted is for either amulti-player skill game using the same game group already identified ora single player skill game. This skill game may be considered anadditional or bonus game or simply a part of the earlier game. Atprocess block 612, the server implementing the result identifyingcomponent may adjust the player result or prize in the initial or firstgame based on the player action that is taken at process block 610 inthe skill game. The first game prizes may be improved, reduced, orremain the same based on the player action or performance in the skillgame. The calculation of the prize adjustment may occur across a networksuch as the network in the system 100 of FIG. 1 where the CGS 101 or theLAS 102 may produce the final result before communicating the resultback to the respective EPS 103.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating another gaming method 700embodying principles according to the present invention. The gamingmethod begins at process block 704 where a player may enter a game playrequest from an EPS 103 on a network such as system 100 of FIG. 1. Atprocess block 706, a server implementing a first game result identifyingcomponent on the network located apart from the EPS 103 such as CGS 101or LAS 102 identifies a result in a first game based on the player'sgame play request at process block 704. A result index may becommunicated to the respective EPS 103 at this point. At process block708, a prize that maps to the result, possibly through the result index,is identified and may be communicated to the player through variouscommunication mediums, for example, through the EPS display 203.Regardless of whether the prize or result is then communicated to theplayer, at process block 710, the player is prompted for an input in askill game at their respective EPS 103. The player may take action inresponse to the prompt and, at process block 712, the serverimplementing the first game result identifying component or anotherresult identifying component may adjust the player prize according tothe player action in the skill game. After performing the prizeadjustment, if any, the server communicates the result or prize asmodified by the skill game result back to the respective EPS 103 asindicated at process block 714.

Numerous variations are possible within the basic method steps shown inFIG. 7. For example, the player may be allowed to decline the secondgame or skill-based input prompted for at block 710 and receive theresult from the first game. The first game itself may be a skill game ora non-skill game. The result identifying component for the first gameneed not be the same element as the component that adjusts theprize/result in response to the input in the second game. Also, it ispossible to perform a skill game first according to the invention andthe result in the skill game may be modified by a result in a second orbonus non-skill game.

As will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art and viewingthe disclosed embodiments, further variations for prize mapping anddistribution in a skill game are possible and are within the scope ofthe appended claims. The above described preferred embodiments areintended to illustrate the principles of the invention, but not to limitthe scope of the invention. Various other embodiments and modificationsto these preferred embodiments may be made by those skilled in the artwithout departing from the scope of the invention.

1. A method including: (a) prompting a player at a player station toenter a skill-based player input at the player station and receiving theskill-based player input at the player station; and (b) identifying agame result for the skill-based player input, the game result beingidentified at a server located in a network with the player stationwhere the server is separate from the player station, and the gameresult being at least partially dependent on the skill-based playerinput.
 2. The method of claim 1 further including communicating the gameresult from the server to the player station.
 3. The method of claim 1further including identifying a time value at the player station for theskill-based player input, the time value comprising a difference in timebetween a first time when an image appears on a display of the playerstation and a second time when the skill-based player input is receivedat the player station.
 4. The method of claim 3 further includingcomparing the time value with a predetermined time value to identify theresult for the skill-based player input.
 5. The method of claim 3further including comparing the time value with another time value ofanother player to identify the result for the skill-based player input.6. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the game result furtherincludes comparing the skill-based input with a standard unrelated toinputs from other players on the network.
 7. The method of claim 1wherein identifying the game result further includes comparing theskill-based input with a skill-based input entered by another playerfrom another player station on the network.
 8. A method including: (a)receiving a first skill-based input for a first player at a first playerstation and an additional skill-based input for an additional player atan additional player station; (b) grouping the first skill-based inputand the additional skill-based input into a game group; and (c)evaluating the first skill-based input for the first player and theadditional skill-based input for the additional player at a serverseparate from the first player station and the additional player stationto identify a result for the first skill-based input and a result forthe additional skill-based input.
 9. The method of claim 8 furtherincluding prompting the first player at the first player station to makethe first skill-based input and prompting the additional player at theadditional player station to make the additional skill-based input. 10.The method of claim 8 wherein evaluating the first skill-based input forthe first player and the additional skill-based input for the additionalplayer includes comparing an input speed measurement associated with thefirst skill-based input for the first player and an input speedmeasurement associated with the additional skill-based input for theadditional player.
 11. The method of claim 8 wherein evaluating thefirst skill-based input for the first player and the additionalskill-based input for the additional player includes comparing aknowledge indicator associated with the first skill-based input for thefirst player and a knowledge indicator associated with the additionalskill-based input for the additional player.
 12. The method of claim 8wherein evaluating the first skill-based input for the first player andthe additional skill-based input for the additional player includesevaluating both the first skill-based input for the first player and theadditional skill-based input for the additional player against a givenstandard.
 13. The method of claim 8 wherein evaluating the firstskill-based input for the first player and the additional skill-basedinput for the additional player includes ranking the first skill-basedinput for the first player and the additional skill-based input for theadditional player in a relative order.
 14. A system including: (a) atleast two player stations, each player station including a respectiveplayer input device and a respective display device, each player stationalso being configured to receive a respective skill-based input; (b) aresult identifying component in a communication network with each playerstation, the result identifying component for receiving a representationof the respective skill-based input received by each respective playerstation, for identifying a respective result for each respectiveskill-based input where the respective result is based at least in parton the respective skill-based input, and for communicating therespective result for each respective skill-based input to therespective player station at which the respective skill-based input wasreceived.
 15. The system of claim 14 wherein the result identifyingcomponent is configured to identify the result for each respectiveskill-based input based upon a comparison of the respective skill-basedinput with some standard unrelated to the skill-based input from anyother player station.
 16. The system of claim 14 wherein each respectiveplayer station is configured to present a prize at the respectivedisplay, the prize being associated with the result for the respectiveskill-based input received at the respective player station.
 17. Thesystem of claim 14 further including a grouping component for groupingthe skill-based inputs from the respective player stations into a gamegroup and wherein the result identifying component identifies the resultfor each respective skill-based input based at least in part on eachother skill-based input in the game group.
 18. A program product storedon at least one storage medium, the program product including a set ofmachine-readable instructions that when executed are configured to: (a)prompt a player at a player station to enter a skill-based player inputat the player station and receive the skill-based player input at theplayer station; and (b) at a server located in a network with the playerstation and separate from the player station, identify a game result forthe skill-based player input received at the player station, the gameresult being at least partially dependent on the skill-based playerinput.
 19. The program product of claim 18 wherein the set ofmachine-readable instructions are executable to compare the skill-basedplayer input and at least one additional skill-based player inputreceived at an additional player station.
 20. The program product ofclaim 18 wherein the set of machine readable instructions are executableto compare the skill-based player input against a standard unrelated toa skill-based player input at any other player station.
 21. The programproduct of claim 18 wherein the game result identified for theskill-based input modifies a result in an initial game.